Hamas navy chief and captor of hostages both killed in IDF airstrikes in Gaza

The Israeli military and Shin Bet security agency announced Thursday that the chief of Hamas’s naval forces and another terrorist who previously held Israeli hostages were killed in airstrikes in the Gaza Strip a day earlier, which were launched in response to an attack on troops.

The announcement came after Israel launched further airstrikes on what it said was Hamas infrastructure, reportedly killing five people, and after troops opened fire on terror operatives who’d crossed into IDF-controlled territory. Qatar, a key mediator state, blamed Israel for the recent violence and said it threatened the ceasefire agreement.

On Wednesday, Israeli forces stationed in the Khan Younis area in southern Gaza came under fire from terror operatives. No injuries were caused. In response, the Israel Defense Forces launched a wave of strikes on Hamas targets.

Those strikes killed Abdallah Abu Shamala, the Hamas naval forces chief, and Fadi Abu Mustafa, who took part in holding Nimrod Cohen, David Cunio and other hostages captive in Gaza, the IDF and Shin Bet said.

Abu Shamala was a senior Hamas commander who held various roles in the terror group’s naval forces over the years.

The IDF said Abu Shamala was involved in Hamas’s sea-borne infiltration in the Zikim area during the 2014 Gaza war, and he also took part in planning and training the naval forces for its infiltration of Israel during the October 7 onslaught.

The naval forces commander also advanced “numerous terror attacks throughout the war against IDF troops, and naval targets in particular,” the military said.

Abu Mustafa, in addition to his role holding the Israeli hostages, was also responsible for tunnel digging in Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade, the military and Shin Bet said.

An airstrike targets the commander of Hamas’s naval forces in the Gaza Strip, November 19, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

Five more Palestinians were killed in alleged Israeli airstrikes in the southern Gaza Strip on Thursday, according to Palestinian media and Hamas authorities.

The Hamas-run Gaza Civil Defense agency claimed that an airstrike on a home in the Khan Younis suburb of Bani Suheila killed three people, including an infant, and wounded a further 15.

Another strike in Abasan al-Kabira, also near Khan Younis, killed two other people, Palestinian media reported.

The military confirmed it conducted strikes on Hamas infrastructure in Khan Younis, on the eastern side of the Yellow Line — meaning territory held by the IDF as part of the ceasefire — but said it was unaware of any casualties caused.

Qatar, which has served as a key mediator in the Israel-Hamas war, condemned what it called “brutal attacks by the Israeli occupation in the Gaza Strip,” deeming the airstrikes a “dangerous escalation that threatens to undermine the ceasefire agreement.”

Hamas urged US President Donald Trump and other international mediators of the weeks-long truce to put pressure on Israel to stop its strikes.

“This violation requires serious and effective action from the mediators to pressure [Israel] to stop these violations and uphold the ceasefire agreement,” Hazem Qassem, a spokesman for the terror group, told AFP in Gaza City.

“The occupation is acting with blatant disregard for the mediators’ efforts,” he said.

Two terror operatives cross Yellow Line, troops open fire

Also on Thursday, the IDF said it had opened fire on two terror operatives who crossed the Yellow Line.

The military said the two operatives had been spotted crossing the line and approaching troops of the Kfir Brigade.

The operatives “posed an immediate threat” to the Kfir soldiers, who then opened fire “to remove the threat,” the military said, adding that a “hit was identified.”

The IDF said it remains deployed in Gaza “in accordance with the ceasefire agreement and will continue to operate to remove any immediate threat.”

Troops find primed rocket launcher aimed at Israel

Meanwhile, in IDF-held territory, troops found a primed rocket launcher aimed at Israel, the military said, publishing photos.

The launcher, which had eight barrels and was loaded with four rockets according to the military, was found by Kfir troops on the eastern side of the Yellow Line.

Images released by the IDF showed that the launcher was damaged, apparently during its discovery by the forces.

The IDF said that the Kfir forces also located other weapons belonging to Hamas operatives, including firearms, grenades, explosives, and other military equipment.

“IDF troops in the Southern Command will continue to operate to clear the area, remove any immediate threat to the forces, and destroy terror infrastructure that could pose a threat to the forces, to the residents of the western Negev, and to the citizens of the State of Israel,” the military added.

Footage from a Hamas camera shows an operative in a school

The IDF also published footage on Thursday that was recovered from the camera of a Hamas operative, showing armed members of the terror group operating in an abandoned elementary school in the northern Gaza Strip’s Beit Hanoun, which is now under IDF control.

Within the school compound, as the footage shows, is an apparent tunnel shaft that the operatives are seen entering. According to the IDF, the shaft leads to a Hamas tunnel that is part of a wider underground network in Beit Hanoun.

The IDF said Hamas built a wide tunnel network under Beit Hanoun, which crosses the entire town and runs underneath homes and other civilian sites.

This undated video released by the IDF on November 20, 2025, shows Hamas gunmen operating in a school in northern Gaza’s Beit Hanoun. (Israel Defense Forces)

In addition, the military said that “thousands of structures above ground were identified as having been used by the Hamas terror organization as weapons storage facilities, firing positions, and command centers for terrorists.”

Nearly every structure in Beit Hanoun was razed by the IDF during its ground operations against Hamas in the past two years. The IDF said it operated in the town “systematically and thoroughly, and neutralized the terror infrastructure that posed a direct threat to the residents of the western Negev.”

Gaza tunnel where Hadar Goldin’s body was held is 7km long, has 80 rooms

The IDF also published footage showing a major Hamas tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip, where it said the body of Lt. Hadar Goldin had been held by the terror group in recent years, before his remains were returned to Israel last week.

The military described it as “one of the most significant and complex” tunnels found by the IDF to date in the Strip.

It spans over seven kilometers, goes down some 25 meters deep, and includes around 80 separate rooms, according to the military.

“The route runs beneath a densely populated residential neighborhood near the Philadelphi Corridor and continues through sensitive civilian areas, including a UNRWA compound, mosques, clinics, kindergartens and schools,” the IDF said.

The IDF said the tunnel was uncovered by the elite Yahalom combat engineering unit and the Shayetet 13 naval commando unit, as other forces of the Southern Command operated in the surrounding area.

The roughly 80 rooms found in the tunnel included those used by Hamas operatives to reside in for long periods, to store weapons, and to plan attacks, the military said.

The IDF said it also found rooms used as command posts by senior terror commanders, including the former commander of Hamas’s Rafah Brigade, Muhammad Shabana, who was killed alongside top Hamas leader Mohammed Sinwar in May.

Hamas earlier this month said that it recovered Goldin’s body from a tunnel in Rafah, an area currently under IDF control. The Israeli military in the past year had searched the area for Goldin’s body, although it did not have intelligence on the exact location.

The terror group, a day later, returned Goldin’s remains, more than 11 years after he was killed and abducted by Hamas gunmen during the 2014 Gaza War.

Footage released by the IDF on November 20, 2025, shows a major Hamas tunnel in southern Gaza, where it says the body of Lt. Hadar Goldin had been held by the terror group in recent years. (Israel Defense Forces)

Hamas, Red Cross said to search for the hostage body in Zeitoun

Hamas operatives, alongside Red Cross representatives, were allowed into the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City on Thursday, also now under IDF control, to search for the body of a hostage, according to Palestinian and Arab media reports.

As in previous similar cases, Israel granted the Hamas gunmen permission to enter the IDF-held areas for the searches.

Al Jazeera reported that the searches ended, seemingly without any bodies being recovered.

Under the ceasefire agreement, Hamas was obligated to return all the living and deceased hostages.

#صور| فريق من الصليب الأحمر وكتائب القسام يستأنف البحث عن جثة أسير إسرائيلي في حي الزيتون بغزة. pic.twitter.com/ZiiWq7WVM8

— المركز الفلسطيني للإعلام (@PalinfoAr) November 20, 2025

Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are still holding the bodies of three hostages: Master Sgt. Ran Gvili, Dror Or, and Thai national Sudthisak Rinthalak.

Hamas has claimed that it has trouble finding their bodies.

Hamas spokesperson Qassem said Thursday that Israel had moved some of the physical markings that demarcate the roughly 50% of the Strip’s territory that Israel still holds.

Residents told Reuters they saw that in Gaza City’s eastern Shejaiya neighborhood, with the IDF’s yellow concrete blocks being moved 100 meters westward.

Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, the IDF’s international media spokesperson, said that “no boundary on the yellow line was moved.”

The IDF began placing the markers in Gaza last month, and at times, has adjusted their positioning based on the actual border-line mandated by the truce agreement. There was no immediate Israeli comment on the latest movement of the markings.